Northwestern University Recognized as Collective Conference Champion for EPA's 2018-2019 University Green Power Challenge
Evanston, IL May 23, 2019—Northwestern University announced today that it is one of eight schools in the Big Ten Conference the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is recognizing as 2018-19 Collective Conference Champions for their green power use. With this award, EPA recognizes both the Big Ten and its participating schools for winning the 2018-19 College and University Green Power Challenge. Together, the schools in this conference collectively use more green power than any other conference participating in the challenge, with the University of Maryland leading the way as the Big Ten school that used the largest amount of green power.
Since April 2006, EPA’s Green Power Partnership has tracked and recognized the collegiate athletic conferences with the highest combined green power use in the nation. The U.S. EPA is recognizing Northwestern University for its use, which contributed to making the Big Ten Conference the collegiate athletic conference using the largest amount of green power.
Northwestern's voluntary use of more than 100 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of green power, representing 39 percent of the school’s annual electricity usage, helped contribute to the winning conference effort. Northwestern University procures renewable energy certificates (RECs) from 3Degrees. In addition, Northwestern generates power on-site with solar panels on Ford Motor Company Engineering Design Center and Kresge Centennial Hall. This commitment to green power demonstrates a sustainable choice that helps to reduce the negative health impacts of air emissions including those related to ozone, fine particles, acid rain, and regional haze. Investing in renewable energy moves Northwestern forward in its efforts to reduce and eventually eliminate the University’s contribution to climate change.
According to the U.S. EPA, Northwestern's green power use of more than 100 million kWh is equivalent to the electricity use of nearly 10,000 average American homes annually and the Big Ten Conference’s collective green power use of nearly 516 million kWh is equivalent to the electricity use of nearly 48,000 average American homes.
In the 2018-19 challenge, the 35 collegiate conferences and 109 schools competing collectively used nearly 3.6 billion kWh of green power. EPA’s Green Power Challenge is open to any collegiate athletic conference in the United States. To qualify, a collegiate athletic conference must include at least two schools that qualify as Green Power Partners, and the conference must collectively use at least 10 million kWh of green power. EPA will restart the 14th season of the College and University Green Power Challenge in fall 2019 and conclude in spring 2020. For more information about EPA’s College and University Green Power Challenge, visit the Challenge website.
About EPA’s Green Power Partnership
The Green Power Partnership is a voluntary program that helps increase green power use among U.S. organizations to advance the American market for green power and development of those sources as a way to reduce air pollution and other environmental impacts associated with electricity use. The Partnership currently has more than 1,500 Partners voluntarily using more than 61 billion kilowatt-hours of green power annually. Partners include a wide variety of leading organizations such as Fortune 500® companies; small and medium sized businesses; local, state, and federal governments; and colleges and universities. For additional information, please visit the EPA Green Power website.